


The Painful Truth

by StarStorm21



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Self-Harm, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:35:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22801870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarStorm21/pseuds/StarStorm21
Summary: Patton feels something is wrong. He finds out he's right after he sees Deceit with a sleeping Thomas.
Relationships: Morality | Patton Sanders & Deceit Sanders
Comments: 22
Kudos: 168





	The Painful Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this in a desperate escape from boardroom hope you like it

Patton couldn’t sleep. He thought he’d be exhausted after guiding Thomas through a day of higher than average social interaction, but he couldn’t seem to sleep. Something felt off, but he couldn’t figure out what. Eventually he decided the only way he was going to get some sleep is if he figured out what was wrong.

First thing he did was check on his fellow sides. He wanted to make sure none of them were in trouble, or causing trouble.

He peaked into each room making sure they were all safe and asleep. Logan was on his back, head tilted to the side, and glasses neatly placed on the side table. Virgil was on his side, wrapping himself in his blankets like a protective shield. Roman was splayed starfish, taking up as much of his king-sized bed as possible and Remus was the same just, of course, in the nude. Last was Deceit, who, as far as Patton could tell, was curled up in so many blankets it was impossible to tell a person was even under all that.

All the sides looked like they were safe and out of trouble so that just left Thomas. Patton sunk out and as quietly as possible rose up into the real world. He looked around to see he was in Thomas’ living room. Thomas must have fallen asleep watching Parks and Rec again. Or that’s what Patton thought before he saw Thomas, and who was with him.

“Dece…!”

Patton’s exclamation was cut off as Deceit forced his hand to cover his mouth.

“Quiet. I just got him to fall asleep by convincing him that he was just resting his eyes.”

Deceit glared at Patton as he continued to brush his fingers through Thomas’ hair. Thomas shifted a bit but quickly settled down under Deceit’s comforting touch.

Patton gave a look of confusion before realizing Deceit’s bed had actually been empty. The mass of blankets was just a way to make it impossible for anyone to tell when Deceit was actually sleeping. How often did he do this?

Patton then looked down to see Thomas’ laptop on the floor. The screen showed that he’d been in the middle of a project with one of his friends. A chat window was also open showing the conversation with said friend.

Near the end it looked like the friend had been trying to convince Thomas to go to bed while they finished up on their end. Patton smiled at seeing Thomas’ refusal to take a break while his friend was still working. Of course, now Thomas was asleep anyway and the friend seemed to have figured that out from the lack of work or replies. Patton frowned at that, already figuring out how Thomas should apologize once he woke up.

“Oh, stop that.”

Patton looked to Deceit, confusion back.

“What?”

“Stop thinking Thomas needs to apologize for taking care of himself.”

“I never said…”

“You didn’t have to. I saw your face.”

“Deceit he just left his friend to do all the work without even telling them.”

“Don’t worry, I already have an excuse if they’re mad when Thomas wakes up.”

“Deceit that’s not the point. You’re not lis…”

Patton was cut off as his hand was shoved over his mouth again. Deceit’s glare was furious.

“I’m not listening?” He gave out a humorous laugh. “Oh no, you are the one not listening. None of you light sides ever listen. Not to me, or Remus, and it took Thomas not caring about a laptop being thrown at his head before you even considered listening to Virgil. Well for the first time Thomas has finally decided to listen to me over you and I’m not letting that go until I can get my point through your thick skull.”

Patton took a step back, suddenly fearful of the anger coming off the dark side. Part of him wanted to sink out, but he couldn’t leave Thomas alone with Deceit. He tried to say something to calm the other side down, but his hand was still covering his mouth.

“Looks like I got your attention. Now are you going to listen. Or do I have to have you keep your hand up, so you don’t interrupt me.”

Patton shook his head and held up his free hand in a placating manner. Deceit nodded and let Patton’s hand fall, giving him a distrustful look. Patton made no move to do anything against the other side.

It was then that something occurred to him. Something had been missing from this conversation, or more specifically something had been missing from Deceit’s part of it.

“You’re… not lying. You haven’t been lying since I got here.”

“Just figuring that out now, are you?”

“But I thought…”

“Deceit isn’t the only aspect I embody, just as Morality isn’t your only aspect.”

“But why now?”

“Because it’s the only way to get you to listen to me!”

Thomas flinched at the shout and Deceit quickly went to sooth him back to sleep. Once Thomas was settled Deceit stood up and grabbed Patton’s arm. They sunk out and rose up in the common room, or actually the Dark Side’s common room.

“Remus is a pretty heavy sleeper so it’s better if we talk here.”

Patton barely registered the explanation still caught up in his revelation.

“Deceit, what do you mean it was the only way I’ll listen to you?”

“Because it is. I’ve tried to get my point across my own way plenty of times but you all just brush me off like it’s nothing. As if the embodiment of lies couldn’t have anything important to say. No the only way to be taken seriously is to play your little honesty game, even if it physically hurts me.”

Patton’s head shot up at that.

“Wait, telling the truth hurts you?!”

“Only when I keep it up for this long with no ulterior motive.”

His hand when to his scaled cheek as he bit back a wince.

Patton’s eyes went wide in horror.

“Deceit no, you don’t have to do this!”

“Yes, I do! If I do anything else, you’ll just label me as the bad guy again and refuse to listen to me.”

“What? No, Deceit!”

Patton felt the panic rise. Deceit hadn’t been able to hide the wince this time. Obviously, it was hurting more the longer he didn’t lie. This had gone on too long.

“You speaking in lies isn’t why you’re the bad guy.”

Deceit glared at Patton. “Oh, then tell me, what exactly does make me the bad guy?”

“Your actions. You constantly try to undermine and work against us, and you end up hurting Thomas in the process.”

Deceit was shaking at this point.

“Oh, you really want to go there? I hurt Thomas? Well news flash I’m not the only one who’s done that, because last time I checked I’m not the one telling Thomas he’s a bad person for not being a perfect paragon of a human being! Ahh!”

“Deceit!”

Patton held out a hand as Deceit clutched his left arm.

“No, this needs to be said. Thomas has his limits as well as his own wants and needs. You can’t keep pushing him to do nothing but good deeds for other sand nothing for himself. He’s going to burn out and end up resenting everyone around him. The person you want Thomas to be is unattainable.”

Deceit fell to his knees, hissing in pain, and Patton rushed forward to catch him. Then, as soon as his arms were around him, Patton pulled Deceit into a hug.

“Please, Deceit stop. I know, you’re right, I know. Please stop hurting yourself.”

“Did… did you say I’m right?”

“Yes, I know I can’t make Thomas entirely selfless. I’ve known for a while. Yes, I may of thought that before, but I learned that was impossible and I changed my expectations.”

He shifted his hold on Deceit so they could properly look at each other.

“That’s what I meant when I said you work against us and hurt Thomas. Logan, Roman, Virgil and I work together to help Thomas come to his own conclusions on things and be the person he wants to be. If any side tries to force him to be who they think he should be, he’d only end up hurt because that’s not what he wants. If you want to help Thomas, you can’t force or trick him into listening to you. You have to let it be his choice and sometimes that means realizing you’re not the best side for him to listen to at that moment.”

He moved his hands, so they were holding Deceit’s gloved ones.

“You don’t have to be the bad guy, Deceit. You just have to change how you do things.”

Deceit looked down at their entwined hands. “I don’t… I know I can do that. I haven’t been ignored and looked over for a long time.”

Patton relaxed at hearing Deceit no longer forcing the truth out anymore.

“I know it’ll be hard, and it will take some time, but it’ll also be worth it. It’ll definitely be better than what you have now.”

Deceit still didn’t look sure.

“How about you start small. I think one of your biggest problems is Thomas only really knows you from the times you tried to make him tell rather big lies with a lot of risks to them. That probably scared him a bit. You need to gain his trust back.”

“I guess it could hurt.”

“That’s the spirit. Now maybe we can start with that excuse you had for when Thomas wakes up. I don’t really like the idea of lying to one of his friends but if we work together, we might be able to think of something we can both agree on.”

“I don’t suppose that’s a start.”

Just then their conversation was cut short when they heard loud chewing from behind them. They turned to see Remus, thankfully clothed, sitting on the table and eating one of his deodorant sticks.

“Remus? How long have you been here?”

Remus shrugged. “Uh since I heard Dee yelling in pain. Thought he was hurting himself again but looks like you got him.”

“Again?”

Deceit pulled his hands away from Patton and held his left one close to his chest as if ashamed of it. Suddenly the gloves made a lot more sense.

“Oh… it’s ok, you don’t have to show me, but please tell someone if you feel you need to do it again. I meant what I said about me not wanting you to hurt yourself. Through forcing yourself to tell the truth or any other method.”

Deceit nodded.

“So, you guys were talking about lying to Thomas’ friend?”

Patton flinched, he really didn’t like what they were about to do, but he also wanted to give Deceit a chance.

“Well I thought we could more word an apology in a way that took blame off Thomas so his friend wouldn’t be mad at him, or something like that. Like I said, start small.”

Remus snorted.

“Wow and I thought it was Virgie’s job to exaggerate Thomas’ friend’s reactions to things.”

“What?”

“Did you guys even read the messages? They were the one telling Thomas to go to sleep and they figured it out later and weren’t mad. Thomas doesn’t need an apology or an excuse. You guys just need to stop thinking all of Thomas’ friends are pussies. Thomas has better taste in people than that.”

Both Patton and Deceit stared at each other.

“That had occurred to me.”

“I feel kind of stupid now.”

Remus gave another shrug.

“Well that’s my monthly dose of giving good advice, I’m going to see what happens if you put a phone in a blender.”

“I’m pretty sure there isn’t already a YouTube video about that.”

Remus was already too far gone for Deceit’s words to reach him. He sighed and turned back to Patton.

“So, what now?”

“Huh?”

“If Thomas needs an excuse for his friend, what am I supposed to do?”

“Oh, well I’m sure he’ll need an excuse for something later. If Thomas really doesn’t want to do something you can offer something.”

“Not possible.”

“Well it’s late and we should really all be in bed. We’ll talk about this more in the morning, maybe with Thomas?”

“No, I don’t think I’d like that.”


End file.
